The evening world., 1887-12-09
OUR MONSTER POST.OFFICE.
Tho Vast Volume of Business Handled Now
Compared with Fifty Years Ago.


tS,,s Fork Letter TO Hartford np,,.l
have taken the trouble to compare the business
OF to-day with that OF the early days OF our once;
the result 10 startling. Statistics are somewhat
dry as a rule, but whoever will take the trouble to
think as he runs over the following figures will
ind room for astonishment. From the onlcial re-
port l ind that durinR the year ending Dec. 81,
1885, the total number of pieces Qctters. cards,
newspapcrs) OF mail matter delivered from the New
York onces was 1903, 2s9, sS9; the total Of pieces re-
ceived In these ofnoes and forwarded was
S24, So, 4s4. The handling OF this mass Of matter
required s4S, 1870 lock pouches and 2, 29T, 1903 sacks ;
the average number Of pouches, sacks, and cases
passing through the omce daily, was ii, l22. The
money paid out and received In the money order
department OF the ma II ONCE and It's fifteen branch
offlces amounted 10 81, 2SS, O36. The expense of
running the New YORK post-on,ce' was 81, 6I5, 4sl
and the receipts 81, bes, 392, giving q net revenue OF
'ziysz, nSS' 4 nc nsmSe, al employees was s,ote;
1872 loads OF mail matter between the railroads and
the main onlce; the average daily number of
llyering man In bulk at the man ONCE was ga.
There are eignteen foreign mails despatched every
seven to nine two-norse trucks Beside The
fifteen branch orices, New YORK has Lass
stree. letter boxes, from Which collections
crowded parts OF the CITY. In 1856 the ofices sold
l6d, sGo, o6O stamps, 20, 4S2, 700 stamped envelopes,
LEGATIONS are mailed to their suuscribers from the
New YORK onioe, aggregating 1000 tons Of mail
matter. Ine total weight OF mhlls received anu
de- patched daily from the New York ofilces was
1917 tons, showing an increase OF 4s per cent.
since 1851, when the daily weight was 1870 IONS.
THIS is an extraordinary business rs compared
with that OF nifty years ago. The venerable
Charles Forester, now dead, who was connected
with the New York once Tor more than half u CEN
fury, was n niue Of concerning those
early days, and ! find In many OF m note books Of
Ten years ago records OF talks held with him and
nled away for future use. In 1920 the New york
Postmaster was named Bailey. lie lived over the
oflce and boarded the clerks In his family. 1t was
every morning Ia his dressing-gown to see that all
The working force consisted Of seven clerks. In
1925 Que Of the clerks, William Coleman,
who had charge OF the distribution Of newspapers
received by mail, resigned anu opened a sta
toner's shop As none OF the remaining clerks
was familiar with the work OF sorting the news
papers, young Forrester's fret duty was to take
the entire newspaper mail under his arm every
day aud carry 1t TO Coleman's once in order that
the ex-clerk might sort It. The six carriers OF the
ONCE In 1928 received two cents for each letter
delivered and one cent for each newspaper;
they would required TO be At the oliice
every morning ut 8 O'Clock to do the work
Of sorting letters. WHAT was known AZ the 'north
mail T" was sent as far AZ Albany by a line Of four
horse stages, with relays every eight miles; the
start was from the old Merchants Hotel in Cort-
landt street. E" Reside had the con-
tract for carrying the man between here and Bos-
ton. When the mails arrived O signal was given by
blowing a coach horn. 1t took two days to send q
letter from New York 10 Boston and sixteen days
from New York TO New Orleans.